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Today's Opinions

I don't like talking about the weather very much because there's nothing anyone can do about it. Here it is mid-October, almost time for Halloween and the World Series, and it still feels like early August.

The past weekend was sheer misery for me. I don't like hot weather because it takes me a long time to cool down. I can always put on enough clothes in winter but getting cool after exposure to extreme heat is a different thing.

Every now and again, I stare at the computer screen while it mocks me. And believe it or not, I don’t have a thing to say. But it’s OK...sooner or later, something comes to me and I have no trouble hammering out a column.

As I thought about what to write for this week, I realized that the holiday season is here...October is almost gone, and with the passing of Halloween, the holidays will officially begin. And it’s all downhill from there.

President Obama says: "No federal dollars (in his health care proposal) will be used to fund abortions." That is untrue. Obama's proposal explicitly allows payment for all elective abortions under his "public option." Any person enrolled in that plan would be required to pay an additional premium (an abortion "surcharge") to cover the cost. Abortionists would send bills for abortions to the federal government and receive payment checks drawn on a federal Treasury account. The funds in this account are government (i.e. public) funds.

According to a recent national Marist Poll, many Americans can’t stand the word “whatever.”

Forty-seven percent of those polled found the word to be the most, like, annoying. “You know” is second, at 25 percent, and “it is what it is” comes in third at 11 percent. Other words or phrases that are like, whatever, include, “anyway” and “at the end of the day.”

Is the bully law being enforced in the public schools of Gadsden County? In my opinion as a parent, no!

My son, a sixth grader in the county school district, has not felt safe in the schools he has attended. As a fourth grader at Stewart Street Elementary, he was bullied on a daily basis by some male students in the same grade. According to my son, there were no teachers supervising the halls when he was called names, pushed and threatened.

On the evening of Sept. 23, I needed medical care. I went to the Gadsden County Urgent Care. I was taken care of by a competent, courteous staff. I was treated and back home within an hour, including travel time.

We need a facility like this more than a hospital. The community would be wise to support this needed care center.

The No. 1 preventable cause of death in America is tobacco use. On Sept. 22, an effort by the United States Food and Drug Administration was made to protect America’s young. A ban on candy and fruit flavored cigarettes was authorized by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

According to the act, it is against the law for any cigarette sold in the United States to have a flavor consisting of natural, artificial, herb or spice.

I posted a comment on my Facebook page the other day that started me thinking...the comment is: If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.

I’m sure we’ve all been in that predicament. You’re in bed, trying to get to sleep, and you hear that familiar, high-pitched whine...and you know you are not alone. Funny how the thought of just that tiny mosquito can overtake your need for sleep.

But that’s just it...that tiny mosquito is not too small to be effective.